Never Forgotten by Terri Reid

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery
Content: Clean 


The curse had killed another law enforcement officer in Stephenson County – this time it struck on Christmas Eve. Nearly a dozen good men had died in the past four years and they all had the same unexplained symptoms. And Mary knew Bradley was next.

***There are some minor spoilers in this review, but just small things, and nothing that should ruin the reading experience plot wise.

Never Forgotten is the third book in the Mary O'Reilly series and so far the worst. I liked the first book despite its flaws, but with each book this series has gotten weaker and weaker. Yet again we are told who the killer is. I really am frustrated with the lack of mystery for the reader to solve. Why not keep us guessing? It would make the stories so much more interesting if we had to figure everything out along with Mary and Bradley. However, I know good and well I would have figured it out long before they did, which is another problem with this series. Bradley needs to turn in his badge and Mary needs to give up being a P.I. because it was so obvious who did it and how they did it that these two have lost all credibility as a police chief and an ex-cop, not that they had a lot to begin with, especially Mary. And I'm not just saying that because I was privy to information they didn't have. There was so much staring them in the face that they were too dumb to see.

We also get a little more info on Bradley's missing wife Jeannine, but I am completely frustrated with this aspect of the book. There are several questions that come to mind like why all of a sudden are there the ghost rules that Jeannine says she has to follow? None of the other ghosts have had rules. And why after his wife has been missing for 8 years, and he has clearly moved on wouldn't Bradley be able to accept that his wife may be dead? It seems like that would be an easier thing to accept than that she walked out on him while pregnant and completely disappeared. Why didn't Bradley realize he had a near death experience and not just a dream when he saw Jeanine while near death? Why didn't he ask about their daughter? And why wouldn't Mary drop bigger hints about Jeanine to help Bradley come to the right conclusion about her, even if she couldn't just come out and tell him she was dead herself? None of it really makes any sense and it all just seems contrived to draw out the mystery - the only real mystery in this series so far - out for several books.

I'm glad I listened to most of this one on Audible while working around the house, so I didn't really feel like I wasted a huge amount of time on it since I was doing other things too. I feel so frustrated with this series that I've decided not to keep reading it, even to find out exactly what happened to Jeanine.



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